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WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2018 – The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) launched a new, six-figure, two-week national digital ad campaign today, urging the 116th Congress and the Trump administration to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. The centerpiece of the campaign, which runs from Dec. 3 to Dec. 14, is a new 30-second video, titled “Start with Us, Start with Infrastructure.”

“Our industry’s 1.3 million workers want Washington to start with infrastructure in the new year,” said AEM president Dennis Slater. “This includes reaching an agreement on a long-term and sustainable funding solution for the Highway Trust Fund. By reclaiming our infrastructure advantage we will ensure the safe and efficient movement of people and goods, connectivity between and within rural and urban America, as well as strong economic growth and job creation. Without it, our country risks losing tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity if Republicans and Democrats don’t work together.”

The goal of the campaign is to demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of infrastructure investment to our nation’s economy. The digital ads are set to run on online news sites in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

According to a new national poll of registered voters also released today, more than two-thirds of American voters said infrastructure investment was an important factor in their decision on who to vote for during the recent midterm elections. The poll results show over half of American voters believe infrastructure will help create jobs and make their commutes safer.

Both Republican and Democratic leadership have mentioned infrastructure as an issue they could work together on in 2019. Despite the growing momentum for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure investment, Slater sounded a word of caution.

“While voters see infrastructure as a much-needed priority, Washington has let them down before. Following the 2016 presidential election we heard similar calls to prioritize infrastructure investment as a means to create jobs and grow our economy. With another election behind us, it is time for Congress and the White House to come together and work on rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. Equipment manufacturers will be working hard to remind and urge lawmakers to remember their election promises,” added Slater.

Last year AEM released The U.S. Infrastructure AdvantageTM, which includes a set of policy recommendations designed to help America reclaim its infrastructure advantage, grow the 48,000 manufacturing jobs supported by transportation construction, and add to the $508 billion in annual economic activity generated by transportation construction. The report recognizes the U.S. is currently investing half of what it spent on transportation infrastructure more than 50 years ago. Over time if the investment gap continues to grow, the economy is expected to lose almost $4 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, resulting in a loss of 2.5 million jobs.

About the Poll

This poll was conducted by Morning Consult from Nov. 21 - 25, 2018, among a national sample of nearly 2,000 registered voters. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Registered Voters based on age, race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of +/- 2%.

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AEM is the North American-based international trade group representing off-road equipment manufacturers and suppliers, with more than 1,000 companies and more than 200 product lines in the agriculture and construction-related industry sectors worldwide. The equipment manufacturing industry in the United States supports 1.3 million jobs and contributes roughly $159 billion to the economy every year.